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Stoner / Doom Bassist Thread - Part 18

beebassdude said:
i got an '89 rat this weekend with the LM308 chip in it. paired with a bluebeard it is pure boner city. no idea what they put in those rats but damn do they sound good.

and its also fun to constantly play "Breed" with my RD and rat, cause its the exact tone from Nevermind.

I was just talking about how much I HATE Rats. I have one with the LM308 and never liked it on guitar and the bassist with this band we played with on Friday was using one and it still sounded like crap. Maybe I need to run it into the Bluebeard
 
OldCrow said:
I was just talking about how much I HATE Rats. I have one with the LM308 and never liked it on guitar and the bassist with this band we played with on Friday was using one and it still sounded like crap. Maybe I need to run it into the Bluebeard

Your crazy :) I love rats, they are a breed of their own. And they are kinda like Gibson's no two are alike and you have to find the right one. I have a '91 big box RI and a rat tail, both are awesome. My guitar player has a '85 or so and it rips too.
 
Word. Rats are like MIM Fenders. They are never the same animal, but they both wear sheep's clothing. My Old punk/ska guitar player used one from the 80's. It always seemed to sound great. It gave the vintage vide and my other guitar player's Dano Cool Cat or something (when the cases were still metal) Gave it the modern. Rats are either crummy or really good. Not sure what caused the issues. Maybe two different factories? I have no clue.
 
ampegfuzz said:
Your crazy :) I love rats, they are a breed of their own. And they are kinda like Gibson's no two are alike and you have to find the right one. I have a '91 big box RI and a rat tail, both are awesome. My guitar player has a '85 or so and it rips too.

Sounds like vintage Marshalls too. I'll give it another shot when the GT200 comes in, maybe I'll change my mind.

Every time this bass player kicked on his Rat he would get completely lost in the mix, and they were a 3 piece. He was using a 4 pro as well so it shouldn't have been a volume issue.
 
My wife and I are driving down to Poughkeepsie, NY(from Halifax, Nova Scotia) for our first CLUTCH show Thursday. PUMPED!

I figured you would have seen them a year or two ago when they played at the Cunard Center with BLS and a half dozen other crappy metal bands. I made the trip for that one. Clutch were wicked, the other bands were not, the after party at the seahorse was also pretty rad from what I remember.
 
My wife and I are driving down to Poughkeepsie, NY(from Halifax, Nova Scotia) for our first CLUTCH show Thursday. PUMPED! Openers are Lionize and Monster Truck. If you haven't heard MT check them out. Awesome new band from Hamilton, Ontario. Heavy blues rock.


My wife and I went to go see them in SF on the last tour. They did not disappoint live, great show.



Regarding the ProCo RAT, they're one of those pedals that fine tuning the controls makes a huge difference. Diming the gain almost always sounds terrible, it gets really squishy and blown out sounding. I'm of the opinion they sound best when used as more of an overdrive than a heavy distortion. Also ampegfuzz and JoeVictim are correct that seemingly no two are exactly the same. Probably not that extreme, but there's a lot of tiny variation between production runs and different models. It's not just the LM308 chip either, I've heard some of those units sound terrible next to the newer chip models. I think some of it boils down to component parts used in the circuit, but also a lot of it is the pots, as some models sound the same at different knob positions and it makes for an unfavorable comparison when you set them the same.My friend made himself a vintage spec one from scratch and it sounded similar, but slightly different and at different settings than mine.
 
I was just talking about how much I HATE Rats. I have one with the LM308 and never liked it on guitar and the bassist with this band we played with on Friday was using one and it still sounded like crap. Maybe I need to run it into the Bluebeard

scott hated them too, and now its his go to distortion pedal. they sound buh rootal.

just listen to Breed, if you dont like that distortion tone hes got during the intro, well then i cant help you! haha
 
Sounds like vintage Marshalls too. I'll give it another shot when the GT200 comes in, maybe I'll change my mind.

Every time this bass player kicked on his Rat he would get completely lost in the mix, and they were a 3 piece. He was using a 4 pro as well so it shouldn't have been a volume issue.


the 4 pro is the most overly inflated wattage amp ever. it says like 1200 or 1600 at mono which is way off, so he was probably getting lost cause hes using that amp.

rat + tubes = boners
 
beebassdude said:
scott hated them too, and now its his go to distortion pedal. they sound buh rootal.

just listen to Breed, if you dont like that distortion tone hes got during the intro, well then i cant help you! haha

Eh. It's me and I know it. Typically when I set any distortion/OD/fuzz I set the gain at 0 and bring it up. Typically I use way less gain when I set pedals and amps up like that

Though it says something when Black Metal guys won't touch it either :D
 
For a point of reference on the RAT, here's a rough instrumental mix from the new Mental Waste release I recorded recently.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Carvin SB4000 > Big Box RAT (gain ~11 o'clock) > Traynor YBA-1 > Ampeg 410HLF


To be fair and honest, I used to hate the RAT. I had it for years and would try it out once in a while, then put it back on the shelf. It always sounded either too thin or too farty. One time it just clicked and I got it to sound great. On guitar first actually, trying it out with a Strat, then I gave it a shot again on bass. So it's not as if it's the bee's knees and you just don't get it, it's kind of a finicky beast.
 

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